


Take This Job

by celli



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010), Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Aged-Up Character, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Community: h50_flashfic, Crossover, F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-21
Updated: 2011-06-21
Packaged: 2017-10-21 01:27:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/219376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celli/pseuds/celli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four times Danny threatened to leave Atlantis, and one time he meant it. (SGA fusion)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take This Job

**Author's Note:**

  * For [slodwick](https://archiveofourown.org/users/slodwick/gifts).



> Thanks to [](http://trinaest.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**trinaest**](http://trinaest.dreamwidth.org/) and [](http://thestarsexist.dreamwidth.org/profile)[**thestarsexist**](http://thestarsexist.dreamwidth.org/) for pretty much holding me upside down and shaking this fic out of me.

I.

“Private! My office, now!” Dr. Williams--Daniel to his ex-wife and alien dignitaries, Danny to his friends, Danno to his military second-in-command when said second-in-command felt like being irritating, and “sir” to Marines about to get called on the carpet--blew through the control room of Atlantis, snapping his fingers and pointing ahead. A tall, willowy brunette rolled her eyes behind his back and followed. The control room staff carefully avoided the appearance of amusement.

“First of all,” Danny said as his office doors whooshed shut behind them, “don’t roll your eyes at me. I know you did.”

“You can’t prove it, sir,” she said from her stiff parade rest.

“I’m quitting my job,” Danny said, picking up a stack of notes all written in capital letters with red ink and dropping them unread in the trash. “I’m going back to Earth, where there’s just global warming and gang warfare and what have you. I’d take it in a heartbeat over a city with a mind of its own and crises every minute and a half and a daughter who backsasses me when she’s not running headlong into alien firefights.”

“I don’t run _headlong_ \--“

Danny threw his hands in the air. “That’s what you object to, Gracie Ann? That’s all you want to challenge?”

“I’m fine, Dad,” Grace said, and there was something just a little serious behind her smile. “I’m almost as good at my job as you are at yours.”

“That’s a great comfort to me when your mother is abusing her medical authority to read me the riot act over my blood pressure,” Danny said. But when she rolled her eyes, he rolled them back at her.

His doors whooshed open with no warning, and Danny resisted the urge to check his watch. A minute and a half, check, he thought as Steve signaled frantically at him.

“Did I mention that Earth doesn’t have Lieutenant Colonel McGarrett and his gate team of doom?” he asked as Gracie clattered down the stairs next to him.

“On the other hand, Atlantis doesn’t have the Red Sox to be the bane of your existence.”

“Noted and logged, Private,” Danny said. He straightened his tie automatically and approached the group of people at the base of the Stargate. “Hi, there. I’m Dr. Daniel Williams, head of Atlantis. How can we help you?”

II.

“Whoa!” Danny said, freezing in place. “Let’s everybody just calm the everloving heck down.” The last few words were directed at the back of Steve’s head, not that he noticed. Steve’s knuckles were white against his P90.

Jenna was on her knees in front of the town guards. She didn’t seem to notice the gun pointed at the back of her head; her eyes were fixed on the ZPM in front of her.

Chin, on the other hand, was clearly aware of the predicament he and Jenna were in. His eyes tracked the movement of the villagers ranged around him and the Marines facing them. Danny would have given a kidney or two for the ability to read Chin’s mind right now.

However, Chin was smarter than the rest of them--as usual. He met Danny’s eyes squarely, then tilted his head to the man who held Jenna’s P90 to her head. Danny followed the movement with his eyes--palms slipping along the side of the gun, eyes slightly averted, okay, okay, he could work with that.

“Listen,” he said, loudly enough that the man--kid, practically, the Wraith didn’t leave people to become elders on a lot of planets--jerked his gaze up. “I know we broke the rules. I know we came across as threatening. I know you feel like you have to protect yourselves from us. But all my people are trying to do is find a way to protect _ourselves_ , you, the whole galaxy, from the Wraith. That’s all.

“She stole from us!” the man guarding Chin said, and Danny reminded himself to lock Jenna in his office and yell at her until he went hoarse. He kept his eyes on her guard, who was still looking back at Danny. The gun had dipped slightly. Good.

“She didn’t mean to,” he said. “I’ve known Dr. Kaye for a long time. She’s smart--sometimes she’s too busy being smart and she forgets what’s going on around her. I bet you have people like that too, yeah?”

A ripple of not-quite-amusement ran through the crowd, and Danny’s friend’s lips twitched.

“I’m going to tell you something about Dr. Kaye. About Jenna,” he said, and out of the corner of his eye saw her look away from the ZPM and at him for the first time. “Someone really important to her--someone she loved--died when a race not that different from the Wraith attacked back in our home galaxy.”

Jenna blinked once, hard. Next to Steve, Kono stood frozen.

“She knows what it’s like,” Danny said around the tightness in his throat. “We all do, now. We just want to be part of the fight, and we need your help. Jenna just got excited and skipped the part where she asked for it.” Then, quieter. “Please. Help us.”

An hour later, Danny followed Steve and Jenna through the Stargate and motioned wearily to the medical team hovering on the stairs. “Chin and Jenna should be okay, but let’s check them out anyway, all right?”

“What a splendid idea, Daniel,” Rachel said from where she’d already reached for Jenna’s wrist. “And as for you--”

“My blood pressure is _fine_ , for the love of God,” Danny said. “Come near me with that cuff and I’m going back to Earth and locking the door behind me.”

She cast her eyes to the heavens, but left him alone.

“Danny?” Kono said behind him. He turned--right into a punch. He managed not to shriek, but only stumbling into Steve as he staggered back saved him from decorating the floor.

“What the hell--”

She grabbed him and he flinched back, but this time she hugged him hard. Still without a word, she stalked off, leaving Danny cradling his soon-to-be black eye and staring after her.

“You’re welcome!” he shouted after her. “No, Rachel, I’m fine. Rachel!”

III.

“--were _not_ making fun of my tie,” Danny said as the transporter rematerialized him. He set off down the hall to the gym. Steve caught up with him in about three steps, because he was a giant.

“You couldn’t see them from where you were sitting. I’m just saying, Danno--”

“And saying, and saying, and saying--”

“The expedition has a perfectly acceptable uniform.”

“Did I wear red Spandex to the United Nations? I did not. Did I wear it to Chechnya? No, I did not.”

“I assume you wore a flak jacket to Chechnya,” Steve said, checking the posted list of sparring room time slots.

“But under the flak jacket, I wore a tie,” Danny said triumphantly, heading for the nearest door.

“Whoa, Danny, that’s not--”

But Danny was already backing out of the room, a hand over his eyes. “Sorry! Sorry! Wasn’t here, didn’t see you, go on about your, you know, business!” The door snapped shut. He just stood there.

Steve said, “I was going to tell you, Kono and Jenna are sparring in there right now.”

“Well, they’re definitely going at it,” Danny said, his voice hoarse.

Steve gently pried Danny’s fingers off his eyes. “Don’t tell me. I can’t know. Team regs, and all that.”

“Some things just can’t be unseen,” Danny said numbly as Steve led him down the hall to an empty room. “Don’t we have an employee manual for that sort of thing? Or I could nip back to Earth and get one and have my eyes surgically removed while I was at it. It would just take a minute.”

“Sparring, Danny,” Steve said. “You’ll feel better after I manhandle you for a while.”

Danny gave him an incredulous look as Steve grabbed his tie and pulled him into the room.

IV.

“There are a limited number of times in a man’s life that he should have to say certain things.” It was exactly eighteen and a half steps from one control room console to the other. Danny got to eighteen, pivoted on one foot just short of Kamekona’s foot, and headed the other way. “ _Will you marry me_ , I’m pretty close to my quota on that one. _Yep, I’d be happy to lead an expedition to another galaxy_. My personal least favorite, _who shot my daughter this time_? But I have to say,” Danny said on his third or fourteenth trip back and forth, “that I am pretty much up to here with the question _what part of Atlantis is trying to kill us today_?

“Status report, Dr. Kaye,” Steve said as Danny took a breath to continue.

“Slightly less impossible than two minutes ago.” Jenna’s voice was only a little muffled by her scrunched-up position under the console. “Chin, hold that crystal in place.”

“Oh, good, so our chances of surviving are up to astronomical from exponentially astronomical?”

“That doesn’t even make sense,” Jenna said, overlaid by a loud crack. “Ow!”

“Are you okay?” Danny asked.

“I’ll be fine.”

Steve was already on the horn to Rachel’s trauma team, so Danny started pacing again. “If we make it through this time, I’m going back. I mean it. The IOA can send some other sucker to watch you people fly too fast and experiment with tech from before the birth of Christ and start interstellar wars. I am done. Finished. End of my rope. Burned out. The straw--the genius astrophysicist-shaped straw--has broken--”

Kono stepped in front of Danny and raised her fist. “Stop talking.”

He choked to a stop.

“Actually, I don’t mind,” Jenna said. She paused to bang on something. “It’s kind of soothing.”

Kono looked over her shoulder, shrugged, and dropped her fist.

“Well--now I can’t think of anything to say.”

“It’s a good thing I’m done, then.”

“What?” Danny took his life in his hands and brushed past Kono to crouch down by the weapons console. Chin was helping Jenna slide out from under it, one hand carefully protecting the burn down her left arm.

“What can I say? You inspire me, Danny.”

She was utterly filthy and had scratches down one side of her face she probably hadn’t even noticed yet. Danny leaned forward and kissed the very tip of her nose.

After Kono had dragged Jenna off to Sickbay and everyone else had started cleaning up, Danny sat on the floor, deliberately thinking about as little as possible. Eventually he felt the pressure of a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, Steve,” he said without looking up.

“Here’s two choices for you,” Steve said. “The resignation/reassignment forms are in your office. The beer is in my quarters.”

“The good beer?”

“Don’t make me make Kono punch you.”

“Fine.” Danny pushed himself to his feet. “But next time--”

“Next time for sure.”

V.

“Dr. Williams.” Michael Reeves, director of the IOA, was adopting the same tone Danny had always used with Grace when she didn’t want to leave the playground at naptime. “You have to understand that we’re just following the rules here.”

“What I understand, Director Reeves, is that the rules were made by a bunch of people who would have been eaten by the Wraith their first day in the Pegasus Galaxy.”

“And good riddance,” Rachel muttered, not quite out of range of the vid pickup from the look on Reeves’s face.

“Sir,” Chin said as Reeves fought irritation and Danny fought inappropriate amusement, “Lt. Col. McGarrett has been of enormous service in the fight against the Wraith. My people owe him our lives. As do the soldiers and scientists of Atlantis, many times over.”

“I appreciate that.”

Rachel snorted.

“But you have to understand, I don’t have a choice in this matter. Colonel McGarrett has violated the rules of Stargate Command and the IOA.”

“I did that plenty of times, and you just promoted me.” Danny started as General Jameson stepped into view. He glanced over at Steve, whose stiff parade rest had relaxed just a fraction.

Reeves looked like he’d appreciate a nice deadly alien attack about now. “Colonel, you can appeal from Earth.”

Rachel glared at him. “Don’t be ridiculous. We all know once he gets back, you’re never letting him near a Stargate again.”

Danny fought the urge to bury his face in his hands. “Thank you, Rachel.” When had he lost control of this? He’d talked down God knew how many people with guns; why couldn’t he get this one civilian to let go of the damn rulebook? “Director Reeves--”

“Dr. Williams. This is an order. Activate the Stargate from your end and send Col. McGarrett through, now.”

Something snapped in Danny’s head. “Fine,” he said. “Just give me a few minutes to pack my things.”

“What?” Reeves asked.

“What?” Steve asked, the first time he’d spoken since Reeves had delivered the IOA’s verdict. “Danny, no--”

“McGarrett goes, I go,” Danny said. He didn’t dare look over at Steve. “End of conversation.”

“Me too,” Rachel said, and Danny did stare at her. She smiled back at him. “The Colonel has kept more people out of my sickbay than I can count. Oh, good luck finding another CMO who can treat Pegasus diseases.” The smile she turned on Reeves was all teeth.

Chin shifted so that he was standing just in front of Steve. “The removal of Col. McGarrett from his command would be a clear sign that the welfare of my people was not a priority to the SGC. I could not in good conscience continue in my position here.”

Kono and Jenna exchanged an agonized look, and then Kono stepped forward too. “I’m with him.”

“Guess you’re out a genius astrophysicist,” Jenna said, and hopefully the vid pickup didn’t show the tears standing in her eyes.

“Jenna,” Steve said quietly. “No.”

“Shut up,” she said.

“I guess that’s it for me too.” Grace stepped up next to Danny.

Director Reeves had turned bright red. “Private, you can’t just abandon your assignment.”

“I look forward to my court-martial,” she said cheerfully. Danny looked over at her, his heart pounding; she winked at him. “It’s all good, Danno,” she whispered.

Reeves stared at them for a full silent minute. There was a vein visibly beating on one side of his forehead. He really ought to get his blood pressure checked, Danny thought. Next to him, General Jameson was staring at him with the same intensity as the Atlantis personnel.

“Fine!” he exploded. He threw his hands in the air. “Fine! I will take this back to the IOA. But I am not going to forget this, you hear me?”

“I should hope not,” Rachel said.

Reeves gestured off-screen, and the transmission abruptly cut out.

There was a brief, shocked silence, and then everyone was laughing and talking as loudly as possible. Almost everyone. Kono and Jenna grabbed each other’s hands and just held on, and Steve stood frozen, still at parade rest, while his teammates and his friends clapped him on the back and patted his shoulder.

“Danno,” he said finally, and the room went still. “How could you--”

“You idiot,” Danny said, and grabbed him.

As a first kiss, it was sudden, and awkward, and way more public than Danny had maybe imagined, but his arms were around Steve and Steve’s arms were around him and the cheering going on around them was a pretty close match to how Danny felt right this second.


End file.
